The invention relates to a toy, specifically, to a ball enclosing a battery-operated motor for moving operably attached flickering elements located outside of the ball.
The prior art discloses a number of devices or toys for amusing either pets or people. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,141 to Parento discloses a novelty ball having a multiplicity of protruding flexible whiskers which cause the moving ball to rapidly decelerate; the ball does not include a battery to move the whiskers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,800 to Kobayashi discloses a radio controllable spherical toy. U.S. Pat. No. 3,888,030 to Bradt discloses a kinetic sculpture having rod-like flexible members attached to a tubular device positioned in a stationary base. The base contains a motor which causes the tubular device to rotate, thereby imparting a variety of swinging motions to the attached rod-like members. The Bradt sculpture however does not move.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,572,696 to Poynter discloses a novelty golf ball containing a motor; movable legs activated by the motor cause the golf ball to seemingly walk. U.S. Pat. No. 2,939,246 to Glos discloses a ball containing a motor which causes the ball to roll; a gravity-actuated switch controls movement of the ball. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 2,104,636 to Burcham discloses a rotating spherical device adapted for advertising purposes. However, none of the prior art devices disclose a combination of a motorized ball with movable attachments.